Dwell time based advertising in a scrollable content stream

ABSTRACT

A method for online advertising includes: receiving a request for a content stream from a client device; embedding an advertisement in the content stream, and transmitting the content stream to the client device; determining a scroll dwell time of the advertisement when the content stream is presented on the client device; determining a level of performance of a guaranteed presentation amount associated with the advertisement, the level of performance based on the scroll dwell time of the advertisement. In another embodiment, candidate advertisements are identified for presentation in the content stream; for each candidate, an expected cost per time unit (eCPTU) of exposure is determined; one of the candidate advertisements is selected for inclusion in the content stream based on the eCPTU&#39;s; the content stream is transmitted to the client device.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application claims priority as a continuation of U.S. applicationSer. No. 13/975,157, filed Aug. 23, 2013, entitled “Dwell Time BasedAdvertising in a Scrollable Content Stream,” the disclosure of which isincorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present disclosure is related to U.S. application Ser. No.13/843,433, filed Mar. 15, 2013, entitled “Display Time of a Web Page,”and to U.S. application Ser. No. 13/843,504, filed Mar. 15, 2013,entitled “Page Personalization Based on Article Display Time,” and toU.S. application Ser. No. 13/836,758, filed Mar. 15, 2013, entitled“Method and System for Measuring User Engagement Using Scroll DwellTime,” and to U.S. application Ser. No. 13/975,151, filed Aug. 23, 2013,entitled “Dwell Time Based Advertising.” The disclosures of theseapplications are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety forall purposes.

BACKGROUND 1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to methods and systems for dwell timebased advertising.

2. Description of the Related Art

At present, Internet users enjoy access to vast quantities ofinformation available through websites and their associated webpages. Toprovide an even better experience for users, website owners seek tocustomize the content of the webpages presented to users based onknowledge of the user's preferences, browsing history, and otherinformation specific to each user. Advertisers seeking to promote theirproducts, services, message, etc. seek to target their advertising forcertain purposes. By acquiring a better understanding of a given user,both website owners and advertisers can benefit by being able to providerelevant content and advertising to the user, and the user also benefitsby receiving content and advertising that he or she is more likely tofind engaging.

It is in this context that embodiments of the invention arise.

SUMMARY

Broadly speaking, embodiments of the present invention provide methodsand systems for dwell time based advertising. Several inventiveembodiments of the present invention are described below.

In one embodiment, a method for online advertising, is provided,including the following method operations: receiving a request for acontent stream from a client device; embedding an advertisement in thecontent stream, and transmitting the content stream to the clientdevice; determining a scroll dwell time of the advertisement when thecontent stream is presented on the client device; determining a level ofperformance of a guaranteed presentation amount associated with theadvertisement, the level of performance based on the scroll dwell timeof the advertisement; wherein the method is executed by at least oneprocessor.

In one embodiment, the scroll dwell time of the advertisement defines aduration of time that the advertisement is visible to a user of theclient device.

In one embodiment, the guaranteed presentation amount defines a numberof impressions for the advertisement.

In one embodiment, determining the level of performance includesassigning a weight to the presentation of the advertisement based on theduration of exposure, and aggregating the weighted presentation of theadvertisement with prior weighted presentations of the advertisement,each prior weighted presentation being defined by a prior presentationof the advertisement weighted by a prior duration of exposure.

In one embodiment, the guaranteed presentation amount defines a totalduration of exposure for the advertisement.

In one embodiment, determining the level of performance includesaggregating the duration of exposure for the presentation on the clientdevice with prior durations of exposure of the advertisement.

In one embodiment, selecting the advertisement includes determining amatch between a target profile associated with the advertisement and anopportunity profile associated with the content stream, the opportunityprofile being based on one or more of characteristics of content to bepresented in the content stream or characteristics of a user of theclient device.

In another embodiment, a method for online advertising includes thefollowing method operations: receiving a request for a content streamfrom a client device; identifying a plurality of advertisements ascandidates for presentation in the content stream; for each of theplurality of advertisements, determining an expected cost per time unit(eCPTU) of exposure; selecting one of the plurality of advertisementsfor inclusion in the content stream based on the eCPTU's of theplurality of advertisements; transmitting the content stream to theclient device; wherein the method is executed by at least one processor.

In one embodiment, selecting one of the plurality of advertisementsincludes performing an auction for an advertising opportunity defined bythe content stream based on the eCPTU's of the plurality ofadvertisements.

In one embodiment, identifying the plurality of advertisements includesdetermining a match between a target profile associated with each of theplurality of advertisements and an opportunity profile associated withthe content stream, the opportunity profile being based on one or moreof characteristics of content to be presented in the content stream orcharacteristics of a user of the client device.

In one embodiment, determining the eCPTU for each of the plurality ofadvertisements includes converting one or more of a cost per impression(CPM) bid, a cost per click (CPC) bid, or a cost per conversion (CPA)bid to the eCPTU.

In one embodiment, converting the CPM bid to the eCPTU includes dividingthe CPM bid by an average exposure duration per impression for theadvertisement.

In one embodiment, converting the CPC bid includes multiplying the CPCbid by a probability that presentation of the advertisement will resultin a click activity.

In one embodiment, converting the CPA bid includes multiplying the CPAbid by a probability that presentation of the advertisement will resultin a conversion activity.

In one embodiment, the method further includes: determining a scrolldwell time of the selected advertisement when the content stream ispresented on the client device, the scroll dwell time defining aduration of exposure of the selected advertisement to a user of theclient device.

In one embodiment, determining the duration of exposure of the selectedadvertisement in the content stream includes processing scroll eventdata indicative of user interaction with the requested web page.

Other aspects of the invention will become apparent from the followingdetailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of theinvention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention may best be understood by reference to the followingdescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 illustrates a system for displaying ads to a user, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2A illustrates a method for performing guaranteed delivery ofdisplay advertising weighted by time, in accordance with an embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 2B illustrates a method for performing dwell time-based guaranteeddelivery of display advertising, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 2C illustrates a web page having swappable advertisements, inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a process for performing an NGD advertising auction,in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a webpage having various modules for content andadvertising, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a content module configured to provide a stream ofcontent, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates content displayed on a mobile device, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates a graph showing a curve defining a relationshipbetween weighting and scroll speed, in accordance with an embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates a curve showing a relationship between weightingapplied to scroll dwell time and the fractional portion of anadvertisement that is displayed, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 9 illustrates a curve showing the assignment of weighting toportions of an advertisement, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a general computer system, inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following embodiments describe systems and methods for dwell timebased advertising. It will be obvious, however, to one skilled in theart, that the present invention may be practiced without some or all ofthese specific details. In other instances, well known processoperations have not been described in detail in order not tounnecessarily obscure the present invention.

In the present disclosure, methods and systems are described for usingarticle-level (or page-level) dwell time, or user time spent, forpricing both guaranteed delivery (GD) display ads contracts andnon-guaranteed delivery (NGD) display ads contracts in online displayadvertising. Methods and systems for determining dwell time are providedwith reference to U.S. application Ser. No. 13/843,433, filed Mar. 15,2013, entitled “Display Time of a Web Page,” and U.S. application Ser.No. 13/843,504, filed Mar. 15, 2013, entitled “Page PersonalizationBased on Article Display Time,” the disclosures of which areincorporated by reference.

Broadly speaking, systems and methods in accordance with the presentdisclosure leverage article-level dwell time information for variousaspects of display advertising. Dwell time information provides a moreaccurate and fine-grained understanding of user engagement thanconventional click or action-based measures of user engagement.Therefore, its application to various advertising models as discussed infurther detail below serves to improve efficiencies of the displayadvertising process. Compared with conventional methods and systems fordisplay advertising, methods and systems in accordance with the presentinvention can provide improved fairness to both publishers andadvertisers.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system for displaying ads to a user, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention. One or more publishers 100 providecontent that is stored in a content storage 102. One ore moreadvertisers 106 provide advertisements (ads) that are stored in an adstorage 104. Broadly speaking, when a user 120 requests content fordisplay on a user device 118, the content can be retrieved and displayedon the user device 118 with selected advertisements. In one embodiment,the user request for content may be defined by the user navigating to aweb page or web site via an application running on the user device 118,such as a web browser application. The browser generates a request forthe web page that is transmitted over a network 116 to a web server 114.The web server 114 is configured to retrieve content and advertisingthat define the web page for delivery to the user device 118 in responseto the request.

In one embodiment, a content selection module 108 is configured toselect content from the content storage 102 for retrieval and deliveryto the user device 118. It will be appreciated that the selection ofcontent can be based on a variety of factors, including but not limitedto the following: recency, time of day, geo-location of the user,popularity, related social network activity, etc. Additionally, contentmay be selected based on a profile of the user, which may be defined ina user data storage 122, and may include various information about theuser, such as the following: age, gender, residence/location,nationality, income, content preferences (explicit or determined basedon prior activity), content consumption history, browsing history, etc.

An ad selection module 110 is configured to select advertisements fordisplay to the user. The advertisements may be selected based oncharacteristics of the content and/or the user (e.g. defined by acontent profile or a user profile). As discussed in further detail belowwith respect to both guaranteed delivery (GD) and non-guaranteeddelivery (NGD) markets, a given advertisement may have a specifiedtarget, defined by one or more target parameters, such ascharacteristics of content or characteristics of a target user. Thus,when content is selected for presentation to a particular user, anadvertisement whose target parameters match that of the content and/orthe user (e.g. match characteristics or profiles of the content and/oruser) may be selected for presentation with the selected content to theuser. In the case of an NGD advertisement scheme, an auction module 112is configured to perform an auction to determine which NGD advertisementto select for presentation. After selection of content andadvertisements, the web server 114 transmits the selected content andadvertising to the user device 118 for rendering on the user device 118.

Though specific embodiments are described herein with reference to webpages displayed in a web browser, it will be appreciated that theconcepts and principles discussed herein may readily be applied to anytype of system supporting display advertising, including various kindsof applications or apps defined for various kinds of hardware platforms(e.g. mobile devices, televisions, etc.).

In the current guaranteed delivery (GD) advertising market, advertiserspurchase contracts that typically specify a target user group (e.g.,females in California who visit fashion pages), a future duration forthe contract (e.g., January 2013 to March 2013), and the number of uservisits (or the number of page impressions) they are interested inobtaining (e.g., 100 million). Web publishers typically guarantee thesecontracts months in advance of the delivery date. GD contracts can becomplex, and the terms of guaranteed contracts are most commonly decidedthrough manual negotiations between a publisher (e.g. a salesrepresentative representing the publisher) and an advertiser (e.g. amedia-buyer representing the advertiser). The publisher may attempt tooffer a combination of available products that best fits theadvertiser's needs while also extracting the maximum possible revenuefrom the advertiser for the user visits sold (e.g., by marking up theprice or offering discounts to close a sale, as appropriate).

In a typical CPM (cost per impression, or cost per thousand impressions)based GD contract, it is important to accurately estimate the truemarket value of user visits, so that contract negotiations can beeffective and fair for both publishers and advertisers. However,negotiations of conventional CPM-based GD contracts are often predicatedon the following assumptions: (1) advertisers assume that each visitinguser interacts effectively with the visited page long enough to view thedisplayed ads; (2) publishers assume that each impression (or visit)leads to the same exposure of the ads and thus each impression is soldequally with the same price.

However, important user engagement information, including page-leveldwell time that can be used to differentiate user engagement for eachvisit/impression, and whether a given user's focus is on each shownimpression, are missing for purposes of determining pricing fairly andeffectively for both publishers/advertisers. Without such information,estimating the true market value of each individual user visit becomesquite challenging. Hence, accurately measuring both the market value ofeach user visit (impression) for publishers, and the advertisingeffectiveness for advertisers is difficult based on the conventionalCPM-based pricing model. For these reasons, advertisers generally preferCPC (cost per click) or CPA (cost per action) pricing models, whilepublishers have practically no other reasonably fair models to choosefrom besides a CPM pricing model. (It is of course noted that publishersmay or may not prefer a CPM-based model because it does not measure thetrue market value of each individual impression (which may producedifferent levels of user engagement).)

Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention provide for apage-level dwell-time based pricing model for GD contracts. In thedwell-time based pricing model, similar to the conventional CPM-basedpricing model, advertisers can purchase contracts that specify a targetuser audience and a future duration for the contract. However, unlikethe conventional CPM-based pricing model, advertisers pay for the totaluser time spent on page impressions they are interested in obtaining(e.g., 20 thousand hours), and Web publishers guarantee these contractsin advance of the delivery date. The dwell-time based pricing modeldirectly leverages page-level user engagement information for pricing adisplay advertising contract, and guarantees that each user is exposedto the ad(s) for a specified time that advertisers are interested inprocuring (which is not the case in the CPM-based pricing model becauseof the complex environment of browsers/tabs). Therefore, a dwell-timebased pricing model can more accurately reflect the true expected marketvalue of each publisher impression, and thereby facilitate fair andeffective contract pricing for both publishers and advertisers.

In accordance with some embodiments, it is possible to achieve betterpricing of a GD contract by modifying a CPM-based pricing model in thefollowing approaches: (1) each impression (or each user visit) can beweighted by the dwell-time of each user visit; or (2) the CPM can bereplaced in the pricing model with a cost per given time unit (e.g.seconds or minutes or hours).

FIG. 2A illustrates a method for performing guaranteed delivery ofdisplay advertising weighted by time, in accordance with an embodimentof the invention. At operation 200, a display ad is selected andpresented to a user. The display ad has a guaranteed delivery amountassociated with it. In one embodiment, the guaranteed delivery amount isdefined by a number of impressions. It will be appreciated that thedisplay ad may be selected from a plurality of ads for presentation at agiven opportunity based on various factors. For example, in the contextof a web page, the display ad may be selected for display based onpredefined target parameters matching characteristics of the contentshown on the web page and/or a profile of the user viewing the web page.At operation 202, the dwell time of the presentation of the ad ismeasured. That is, the amount of time that the user viewed or wasexposed to the ad during that particular presentation of the ad (e.g. ona web page) is measured and recorded. At operation 204, a record of thatparticular presentation of the ad is recorded as an impression weightedby the measured dwell time of the presentation. At operation 206, anaggregate (e.g. a sum) of weighted impressions for the advertisement isdetermined. The aggregate of weighted impressions includes thatdescribed above along with other weighted impressions previouslyrecorded for the advertisement. At method operation 208, the aggregateof weighted impressions is compared against the guaranteed deliveryamount defined for the advertisement to determine a level of performanceof the guaranteed delivery amount for the advertisement.

FIG. 2B illustrates a method for performing dwell time-based guaranteeddelivery of display advertising, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention. At operation 210, a display ad is selected and presented to auser. By way of example, the display ad may be presented in conjunctionwith content via a display context such as a web page or mobileapplication. The display ad has a guaranteed presentation amount thatdefines a total amount of (dwell) time that the display ad is to beexposed to users. It is noted that the total amount of time is definedby time that the display ad is actually presented to users (as opposedto a broader time period during which the display ad may be shown, whichmay also be predefined for the display ad). At method operation 212, thedwell time of the presentation of display ad is measured. At operation214, the dwell times for the display ad are aggregated, including themeasured dwell time of the instant presentation as well as measureddwell times of prior presentations of the display ad. At methodoperation 216, a level of contract fulfillment is determined bycomparing the aggregate dwell time for the advertisement against theguaranteed presentation amount.

It will be appreciated that the use of dwell time as a measurement ofuser engagement can also facilitate new advertising methods. Forexample, it is possible to show multiple advertisements during the sameimpression and measure the dwell time of each advertisement. Withreference to FIG. 2C, a web page is shown having swappableadvertisements, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Theweb page 220 in the illustrated embodiment includes a content location222 and an advertisement location 224. Any of various kinds of contentmay be presented in the content location 222; and an advertisement canbe selected for presentation at the advertisement location 224.Furthermore, during a single impression of the web page 220, multipleadvertisements may be shown in the advertisement location 224. Forexample, during a first time period, an advertisement 226 may bepresented in the advertisement location 224, and during a second timeperiod a different advertisement 228 may be presented in theadvertisement location 224. Thus, an advertisement may be swapped outfor a new advertisement during the same impression of the web page.Though in the illustrated embodiment, two advertisements are shown, itwill be appreciated that any number of advertisements may be swapped foreach other and displayed during a single impression of the web page 220.

In some embodiments, the web page 220 may be presented in a scrollablecontext, such as on a mobile device or within a browser windowconfigured such that the web page 220 is not visible in its entiretyduring presentation to the user. As described in further detail herein,a scroll dwell time can be determined for an advertisement, and thus, anew advertisement may be substituted for an existing advertisement atthe same location after a predefined amount of scroll dwell time haselapsed. In one embodiment, when a user is determined to have viewed anadvertisement (e.g. user did not scroll past the advertisement at toohigh a speed to comprehend the advertisement, or measured scroll dwelltime is greater than a predefined minimum to ensure comprehension of theadvertisement, as discussed elsewhere herein) and scrolls past theadvertisement (e.g. scrolls down), then if the user returns to thelocation of the advertisement (e.g. scrolls back up), then a newadvertisement is presented in place of the previous advertisement. Thatis, scrolling past the first advertisement may trigger the substitutionof the first advertisement with a new second advertisement, such thatthe new advertisement will be visible to the user if the user scrollsback to that location.

It should be appreciated that though a web page 220 has been described,in other embodiments, advertisements may be swapped in any other type ofcontext supporting the display of advertisements. For example, these mayinclude content streams, app or application content displays, etc., aswell as the advertising contexts described with reference to FIGS. 5 and6.

In some embodiments, the advertisements which are swapped for each othermay be from the same advertiser. This can be desirable as it allows anadvertiser to show multiple advertisements during the same impression.The advertiser may thus present different options to a user and therebyimprove the chances that a user will engage with one of theadvertisements in some manner. The act of changing advertisements for agiven advertisement location may also draw the attention of the user tothe new advertisement, thereby improving user engagement. Furthermore,for a single impression, the advertiser is able to present differenttypes of advertisements and may therefore better understand a given userbased on their reactions to the advertisements with fewer impressions.

In other embodiments, the advertisements which are swapped for eachother may be from different advertisers. In this manner, the publisheris able to accommodate more advertisements from different advertisersfor a given impression. The publisher may increase revenue perimpression as multiple advertisements are shown for a given impression.Also, the publisher is able to accommodate a higher number of GDcontracts for a given time period, as a single impression may counttowards multiple advertisements (regardless of whether advertisementsshown during an impression are from the same or different advertisers).

It will be appreciated that a first advertisement may be displayed for apredefined time period before it is swapped out for a secondadvertisement presented at the same location. A timer can be configuredto determine when the predefined time period has elapsed. The predefinedtime period thus defines a maximum dwell time per impression for a givenadvertisement. It will be appreciated that different advertisements mayhave different predefined time periods (or maximum dwell times perimpression) associated therewith.

By way of example, Bharadwaj et al., (Bharadwaj et al., PricingGuaranteed Contracts in Online Display Advertising, CIKM 2010, which isincorporated by reference herein) have explored how to better estimatethe true expected market value of each impression for pricing a GDcontract. Their approach uses historical sales prices that arenegotiated between a sales person and an advertiser, and the individualuser visits that have been obtained under each contract to compute theexpected market value/price of the individual user visits for the new GDcontract. One of their algorithms (called WAP) computes the value ofeach user visit in the new contract as the weighted average of theprices (per user visit) of eligible historical contracts.

However, in a pricing model applying dwell-time data, it is possible tocompute the expected market value/price of each time unit (e.g. seconds,minutes, or hours) of exposure of publisher pages/websites as theweighted average of the prices (per time unit) of eligible historicalcontracts. Accordingly, research results on CPM-based GD advertisingmodels can be leveraged for determining the dwell-time based pricingmodel. By leveraging both dwell-time based user engagement informationand existing research, it is possible to more accurately estimate theprice of online advertising contracts (products) for both GD and NGD(non-guaranteed delivery) markets.

In contrast to the GD market, Non-Guaranteed Delivery (NGD) advertisingdefines a spot market where advertisers can buy ad impressions one at atime. Under an NGD mechanism, every time a user loads a web page with anad slot, an impression opportunity to display an ad is defined. Anauction is run among the ads that match the targeting specifications ofthat particular opportunity and an ad is chosen for display in the adslot. One example of an NGD system is the Right Media Exchange (RMX)system for NGD contracts. At present, the RMX system handles more than10 billion NGD transactions per day, with each transaction involving anauction for one impression opportunity and its matching advertisingcampaigns.

In contrast to the conventional CPM-based GD market, the NGD marketsoffer advertisers a wider range of payment models. Advertisers canchoose to pay per impression (commonly known as a cost-per-impression(CPM) model). They can also choose to pay per click (commonly known as acost-per-click (CPC) model), or pay per conversion/action (commonlyknown as a cost-per-conversion/action (CPA) model). These later paymentmethods may be desirable for the advertiser because an ad impression maynot ultimately lead to a desired action on the part of the user, such asa visit to the advertiser's website or a product purchase. In the CPCmodel, the advertiser will not be charged unless the user clicks ontheir ad. The CPA model further reduces the risk for the advertiser byallowing the advertiser to pay only when the user takes an action thatis of interest to them. Advertisers have control over the definition ofthese conversion actions. Exemplary actions include but are not limitedto the following: subscribing to an email list, registering an account,adding an item to a shopping cart, or making a purchase.

FIG. 3 illustrates a process for performing an NGD advertising auction,in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. As shown, AdvertisersA, B, C, and D submit respective bids A, B, C, and D for theirrespective advertisements. In the illustrated embodiments, theAdvertiser A submits a CPM bid; Advertiser B submits a CPC bid; andAdvertiser C submits a CPA bid.

In the NGD market, where advertisers with different payment types willcompete for the same ad slot, an auction mechanism can be configured toconvert bids that are in different payment models to a common base.Expected cost per impression (eCPM) is a widely utilized choice for sucha common base. For CPM ads, the expected price per impression (eCPM)would be the same as the bid for that impression. For ads that aredefined as pay per click (CPC) or pay per conversion (CPA), the eCPMwill depend on the expected click or conversion rate for a givenimpression. More precisely, for a CPC ad, the eCPM can be expressed asthe following: eCPM(CPC)=p(click|impression,ad)*bid; wherep(click|impression,ad) is the probability that an impression will resultin an ad click. For a CPA ad, the eCPM can be expressed as follows:eCPM(CPA)=p(conversion|impression,ad)*bid; wherep(conversion|impression,ad) is the probability that an impression willlead the user to take the action(s) that constitutes a conversion forthat advertiser. For more information, reference may be made to Rosales,et al., Post-Click Conversion Modeling and Analysis for Non-GuaranteedDelivery Display Advertising, WSDM 2012, and to R. McAfee, The Design ofAdvertising Exchanges, Rev Ind Organ, 2011, 39:169-185, which areincorporated by reference herein.

Thus, with continued reference to FIG. 3, the eCPM for Advertiser A's adis equal to bid A, as bid A is a CPM bid. Whereas, the eCPM forAdvertiser B's ad is the probability that an impression will result inan ad click multiplied by the bid B, which is a CPC bid. And the eCPMfor Advertiser C's ad is the probability that an impression will resultin the conversion action set for the ad multiplied by the bid C, whichis a CPA bid.

However, it is noted that user engagement information for a givenimpression is not accounted for by conventional NGD payment models.Advertisers who choose a CPM pricing scheme in an NGD market are oftenmore interested in building brand awareness where “getting the messageout” is the goal. Information about page-level user timespent canaccurately measure the exposure of the ads to the targeted audience.However, the conventional CPM-based approach does not account for thisimportant information. Therefore, a Cost Per Time Unit (CPTU) (e.g.minutes/hours/days) payment method for the NGD market is hereinpresented. That is, an NGD contract can be based on how much time usersspend on each publisher's web pages (time spent on impressions) wherethe ads are shown. In the illustrated embodiment, an additionalAdvertiser D is shown having submitted a CPTU bid for its advertisement.

Accordingly, a family of expected CPTU (eCPTU) values can be computedfor CPC and CPA models so that auctions for an NGD spot market can stillrun based on existing pricing models. More precisely,eCPTU(CPC)=p(click|timespent on an impression,ad)*bid andeCPTU(CPA)=p(conversion|timespent on an impression,ad)*bid, wherep(click|timespent on an impression,ad) is the probability that animpression will result in an ad click after the user is exposed to theimpression for a given unit of time, and p(conversion|timespent on animpression,ad) is the probability that an impression will lead the userto take the actions that constitute a conversion for that advertiserafter the user is exposed to the impression for a given unit of time. Itis also possible to compute eCPTU for a CPM based campaign, that iseCPTU(CPM)=bid/(average timespent per impression*1000), wherein the bidis per thousand impressions. Using CPTU and eCPTU together, an auctioncan be run based on fine-granular user engagement time unit informationas opposed to the impression-based approach.

Thus, with continued reference to FIG. 3, the eCPTU for Advertiser A'sad is bid A divided by one thousand (assuming bid A is a CPM bid perthousand impressions), further divided by the average dwell time perimpression. The eCPTU for Advertiser B's ad is the probability that animpression will result in an ad click after the user is exposed to theimpression for a given unit of time, multiplied by bid B (a CPC bid).The eCPTU for Advertiser C's ad is the probability that an impressionwill lead the user to take the actions that constitute a conversion forthat advertiser after the user is exposed to the impression for a givenunit of time, multiplied by bid C (a CPA bid). Of course, the eCPTU forAdvertiser D's ad is the bid D, which is a CPTU bid.

Thus, each of the bids from the Advertisers A, B, and C are converted toa common base—that is, eCPTU. The converted bids, along with AdvertiserD's bid, which is already a CPTU bid, are therefore utilized to run anauction for a given ad slot. Because, the bids have all been convertedto a common base, they can be compared with relative ease. Furthermore,the eCPTU provides a more accurate and intuitive measurement of thevalue of an ad, as it defines expected cost (or rather, expected revenuefrom the perspective of the publisher) as a function of actualpresentation time of the ad to users.

Thus the true market value of user interactions is better realized.Publishers that have attracted more user time spent will receive a moreaccurate fair market-share even when they have the same number or alesser number of page views than other publisher websites. Advertisersalso are guaranteed the exposure time of their ads to the users by thenature of these new payment methods, which are based on user-engagementtime spent. Advertisers can also be provided with a better sense ofbudget and spend per time-period so that they can manage online adcampaign spend more effectively. Publishers can also set a fairtime-based (or CPTU based) Reserve Price so that their user engagement'smarket value can be better reflected.

In various embodiments of the invention, systems can be configured toperform GD and NGD advertising in accordance with the methods describedherein. For example, the system described with reference to FIG. 1 canbe configured to perform GD and/or NGD advertising in accordance withthe principles and methods described herein.

With the new payment methods, it is possible to generate new time-basedevaluation methods for evaluating the performance/cost of online adcampaigns. For example, the total ad cost of an ad campaign in the NGDmarket can measure the realized advertising cost and also directlyreflect how long the campaign has been exposed to the users (e.g. by asimple formula: cost/price).

A publisher's total revenue can reflect how successfully it has realizedthe market value of its owned impressions, and how long users haveactually spent on their website(s). This also provides an opportunityfor a publisher or content-owner to investigate the possible trade-offbetween user engagement and revenue. The publisher can also forecastpotential users' timespent on each of its owned webpages and price themdifferently. For example, a higher quality property may command a bettermarket price and therefore driving user engagement on such propertieswill improve the publisher revenue. This is in contrast to theconventional CPM-based model where a publisher may run the risk ofhaving fewer pageviews if each user spends more time on each pagebecause the page quality has improved.

Under the conventional CPM-based model, a publisher is rewarded forincreasing the number of pageviews on its webpage, but not necessarilyfor improving user engagement. In fact, in the case of a publisher whoowns multiple webpages, improving engagement on one or more of thewebpages may result in fewer pageviews overall, as users dwell forlonger periods of time on a given webpage. Under a CPM-based model, thistype of situation leads to unfair results, as a webpage having arelatively low viewership but high user engagement will not be fairlycompensated under a CPM-based model. However, by performing onlineadvertising in accordance with the time-based methods and systems as aredescribed herein, user engagement can be accounted for by measuring theuser dwell time on a webpage, and dwell time can thus be utilized as abasis for determining advertising cost.

One example of a page that may incur a high level of user engagement isthe Yahoo! frontpage (www.yahoo.com), which at present includes a streamview feature wherein users may continuously scroll down to viewadditional content (e.g. article previews or summaries). Thus, users mayspend large amounts of time on just one page view. According to theconventional CPM-based approach, a display ad that is visible during apageview will only register as a single impression regardless of howmuch time a user spends during that pageview. However, the CPTU-basedapproach described herein can account for the amount of time spent bythe user during the pageview, and thus provides an improved mechanismfor handling online advertising.

FIG. 4 illustrates a webpage having various modules for content andadvertising, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. In theillustrated embodiment, the webpage 400 includes various modules 402,404, 406, 408, 410, 412, 414, 416, 418, 420, and 422. Any of thesemodules may be defined to include content or advertisements, inaccordance with various embodiments of the invention. By way of example,in one embodiment, the module 402 defines a search bar in which a usermay enter a search query. In another embodiment, the module 402 definesa banner ad placed at the top of the webpage 400. In one embodiment, themodule 404 defines a menu of properties or sections to which the usermay navigate from the webpage 400. In another embodiment, the module 404defines a display ad shown on the side of the webpage 400. In oneembodiment, the module 406 defines a large preview of an article, withthe modules 408, 410, 412, and 414 defining miniature previews ofarticles. When hovering over one of the miniature previews 408, 410,412, or 414, its corresponding large preview may be shown in the module406. In one embodiment, the module 416 defines a series of headlines orarticle summaries. In another embodiment, the module 416 defines contentsuch as an article or story. In various embodiments, the modules 418,420, or 422 may define various types of content or advertisements.

For purposes of illustration, certain NGD advertising campaign examplesare provided below. These are provided merely by way of example, toprovide further clarity regarding implementations in accordance with thepresent disclosure.

An example of a CPC NGD campaign may specify the following parameters: atarget demographic defined by age and location (e.g. age<40;state=California); a duration in which the advertisement(s) for thecampaign may run (e.g. Jun. 1, 2010 to Jul. 1, 2010); a bidding total(e.g. $1,000); a maximum CPC (e.g. $2).

An example of a CPA NGD campaign may specify parameters similar to thoseof the aforementioned CPC NGD campaign, with the exception of themaximum CPC amount. Instead, the CPA NGD campaign may specify a maximumCPA (e.g. $20).

As another example, a CPM campaign can be specified with additionalgoals, such as CPC or CPA goals. For example, the CPM campaign mayspecify a target demographic, a duration, a bidding total, and a maximumCPM (e.g. $2). To promote CPC goals, the CPM campaign may also specify amaximum CPC (e.g. $2); whereas to promote CPA goals, the CPM campaignmay also specify a maximum CPA (e.g. $20).

A CPTU campaign can be specified with the following parameters: a targetdemographic, a duration, a bidding total, and a maximum amount per hourof user time spent (e.g. $2). Furthermore, a CPTU campaign may promoteCPC or CPA goals by additionally specifying a maximum CPC (e.g. $2) or amaximum CPA (e.g. $20), respectively.

FIG. 5 illustrates a content module configured to provide a stream ofcontent, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. As shown,the module 416 is defined to present a content stream consisting ofvarious content items 500, 502, 504, 506, 508, 510, 512, and 514. Themodule defines a scrollable context in which the content items arepresented. It should be appreciated that additional or fewer contentitems may be presented, and that any number of content items can bepresented as part of the content stream. It will be noted that thecontent items 510, 512, and 514 are not currently visible in the module416. However, a user may scroll the presentation of the content streamwithin the module 416 up or down as desired to access the variouscontent items. By way of example, scrolling down to access alower-situated content item such as the content item 514 will move theuppermost content items 500 and 502 up and out of the activepresentation area within the module 416.

It should be appreciated that the content items can include any kind ofcontent, including, but not limited to, the following: text, images,videos, articles or portions thereof, article summaries, titles,descriptions, search results, social network posts, forum posts, etc. Itwill be appreciated that though the content items are shown in theillustrated embodiment to be of generally uniform size and shape, inother embodiments, content items can have any size or shape suitable forpresenting content. Furthermore, though in the illustrated embodimentthe content items are arranged in a vertical listing, in otherembodiments the content items may have any arrangement. In someembodiments, content items may be defined and arranged in a side-to-sideconfiguration, with content items to a given side being accessible byscrolling to the given side.

One or more advertisements can be embedded in the content stream. Forexample, any of the aforementioned content items may define anadvertisement. In various embodiments, the presently describedprinciples for applying dwell time in the context of advertisementcampaigns can be applied to advertisements which are presented in ascrollable content stream.

It should be noted that an advertisement in a scrollable content stream(or any other scrollable or otherwise movable format) may or may not bevisible to the user when the content stream is being presented becausethe user is only able to view a limited portion of the content stream atany one time. The advertisement may or may not actually be displayed tothe user during the presentation of the content stream. Furthermore, dueto the scrollable nature of the content stream, it is possible for theuser to scroll past the advertisement, or scroll too fast to trulycomprehend or consider the advertisement. Hence, it is desirable todetermine with specificity the actual advertisement-specific dwell timefor a given advertisement.

In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/836,758, entitled “METHOD ANDSYSTEM FOR MEASURING USER ENGAGEMENT USING SCROLL DWELL TIME,” thedisclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference, methods andsystems are provided for determining the scroll dwell time of a givenitem, that is, the time that an item is exposed for viewing by a user asthe user scrolls the larger context in which the item is situated. Thus,in accordance with these methods and systems, the scroll dwell time foran advertisement can be determined. This is useful for ascertaining userengagement when the advertisement is defined in a scrollable context,such as in a content stream as described herein, or in any otherscrollable context such as a web page which extends beyond the bordersof a browser window, or other document which may extend beyond theborders of its viewing context.

As has been discussed, both GD and NGD advertising models can beimplemented utilizing dwell time-based cost structures in addition to orin place of existing cost-per-event structures (CPM, CPC, CPA). Suchadvertising models can be applied in the same manner utilizing scrolldwell time, which measures dwell time for a specific advertisementappearing in a scrollable context such as a content stream. For example,in one embodiment, in a CPM-based GD model, each impression for a givenadvertisement can be weighted by the scroll dwell time of theadvertisement during that impression. In another embodiment, aCPTU-based GD model is defined in which a total scroll dwell time isguaranteed for a given advertisement.

In another embodiment, a NGD advertisement system can be defined toaccept CPTU bids which define the amount the advertiser is willing topay for a given amount of scroll dwell time. CPM, CPC, and CPA bids canbe converted to their respective eCPTU bids to facilitate performance ofauctions based on a common base, as has been discussed above.

It should be appreciated that the presently described principles andtechniques for advertising based on scroll dwell time can be applied toany scrollable context in which an advertisement may be presented,wherein the advertisement may or may not be visible depending upon thelocation to which the context has been scrolled. Various exemplaryscrollable contexts can include a web page displayed in a web browser, acontent page displayed in an application, or any other type ofpresentation format in which a partial viewing area of an entire areamay be established that is capable of being moved or scrolled from onelocation to another to thereby reveal and hide portions of the entirearea. It will also be appreciated that scrolling can be effected by auser based on a various kinds of input mechanisms, such as a sliderinterface which controls the position of scrolling, or a touchscreeninterface wherein a user provides a swiping gesture on the touchscreeninterface to effect scrolling of the scrollable context.

One advertising space in which the presently described scroll dwelltime-based advertising paradigm can be of particular utility is in thearea of advertising on mobile device platforms, such as tablets,smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDA's), portable mediaplayers, portable gaming devices, and other kinds of portable devicessupporting the display of content with advertisements. Such devices mayinclude a touchscreen display for receiving gesture input from a user.Due to limited screen size, content is often presented in a scrollableformat, with additional content being made accessible for viewing uponscrolling from a current location to another location within the overallcontext of the content. For example, an article may extend beyond thedisplay area of a mobile device, and therefore, the user must scrollthrough the article in order to view the article in its entirety. Or inanother example, a listing or stream of content may extend beyond thedisplay area, and thus require scrolling to view the entire contents ofthe listing or stream. Advertisements can be included in such contexts,and therefore the advertisements may or may not be visible at any timeduring the viewing of the larger content context. Thus, scroll dwelltime-based advertisement in accordance with the principles describedherein can have particular relevance for the mobile advertising market.

FIG. 6 illustrates content displayed on a mobile device, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention. The mobile device 600 can be anytype of mobile of portable device, and includes a touchscreen display602 for rendering content. In the illustrated embodiment, various items604, 606, 608, 610, 612, 614, and 616 may be displayed. Each of theitems can be defined by various kinds of content or portions thereof, aswell as advertisements. As can be seen, not all of the items can bedisplayed simultaneously on the display 602 due to its limited areaavailable for display. Thus a user may scroll the display of content soas to discover and view the items as desired. An advertisement includedin the items may or may not be visible to the user at any given time.

Conventional mobile advertising has relied upon triggering the recordingof an impression when a given advertisement appearing in such ascrollable context is reached by the user (i.e. the user scrolls to apoint where the advertisement is displayed on the display). However, auser may scroll past such an advertisement without truly comprehendingthe advertisement. Thus, the impression does not provide an accuratequantification of the user engagement with the advertisement.

In contrast to conventional methods, the scroll dwell time of a mobileadvertisement can be utilized for both GD and NGD advertising inaccordance with the principles and methods described above. The scrolldwell time provides a much more precise indicator of the actual userengagement with a given advertisement by a user, and therefore allowsfor better pricing of advertisements in both the GD and NGD markets.

It will be appreciated that it is possible for a user to scroll past anadvertisement with a scroll speed that is high enough such that the userdoes not comprehend an advertisement appearing momentarily on thedisplay of the user's device. Therefore, in various embodiments, thescrolling speed is also monitored in addition to scroll dwell time. Inone embodiment, if the scroll speed is greater than a predefinedthreshold, wherein it is likely that the user will not be able tocomprehend the advertisement, then no scroll dwell time is recorded forthe advertisement, even though the advertisement technically appeared onthe display briefly while the user was scrolling past it.

In another embodiment, the scroll dwell time can be weighted in inverserelation to the scroll speed. That is, the higher the scroll speed, thenthe lower the weighting applied to the resulting dwell time occurring atthat scroll speed; and the lower the scroll speed, then the higher theweighting applied to the resulting dwell time occurring at that scrollspeed. FIG. 7 illustrates a graph showing a curve defining arelationship between weighting and scroll speed, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention. There may be a maximum weighting definedwhich is applied when the scroll speed is equal to zero. Furthermore, azero weighting may be applied for a scroll speed exceeding a predefinedthreshold (a maximum scroll speed), which may effectively eliminate thescroll dwell time occurring at such a scroll speed.

It is recognized that an advertisement may be partially visible tovarious degrees depending upon the scroll location to which a user hasscrolled. Therefore, it is contemplated that in various embodiments, theaccrual of scroll dwell time for an advertisement is affected by theportion of the advertisement that is visible. In one embodiment, scrolldwell time is only recorded when the entirety of the advertisement isvisible. In another embodiment, scroll dwell time is weighted by thefractional portion of the advertisement that is visible. That is, thelower the fractional portion of the advertisement that is visible, thenthe lower the weighting applied to the scroll dwell time recorded forthe advertisement; and the higher the fractional portion of theadvertisement that is visible, then the higher the weighting applied tothe scroll dwell time. A maximum weighting may be defined for when theentirety of the advertisement is visible.

FIG. 8 illustrates a curve showing a relationship between weightingapplied to scroll dwell time and the fractional portion of anadvertisement that is displayed, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention. As shown, when a low fractional portion of the advertisementis displayed, the weighting is depressed to a greater extent than thefractional portion would suggest; whereas when a high fractional portionof the advertisement is displayed, the weighting is magnified to agreater extent than the fractional portion would suggest. This may bedesirable to reflect the fact that when a small portion of anadvertisement is displayed, it is unlikely that a user is viewing orable to comprehend the advertisement, whereas when a large portion of anadvertisement is displayed, the advertisement may already be fullycomprehensible and may in fact be viewed by the user even withoutdisplay of the entirety of the advertisement.

In another embodiment, the weighting applied may vary depending uponwhich portion of an advertisement is visible. For example, a higherweighting may be applied for an upper portion of an advertisement and alower weighting applied for a lower portion of the advertisement. Inthis manner, when the user scrolls down only far enough to partiallyshow an advertisement, a publisher may be credited with a portion of thescroll dwell time that is greater than the fractional portion of theadvertisement shown, to reflect the fact that the advertisement was infact displayed to the user, if only in part. In yet another embodiment,the weighting can be predefined for any portion of an advertisement. Forexample, a middle portion of an advertisement may have a higherweighting than either of upper or lower portions of the advertisement.This may be desired where the middle portion of the advertisement is ofgreater importance to the advertiser than the upper or lower portions.It should be appreciated than any number of portions of an advertisementcan have predefined weightings, each of which may be applied inproportion to the amount of its corresponding portion that is displayed.

In one embodiment, when multiple portions of an advertisement havingdifferent predefined weightings are simultaneously displayed, then theweighting applied to the resultant scroll dwell time may be an aggregateor integrated amount of the weightings predefined for the displayedportions. For example, FIG. 9 illustrates a curve showing the assignmentof weighting to portions of an advertisement, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention. For a given portion of the advertisementdisplayed, the weighting applied to the resultant scroll dwell time isdefined by the area under the curve (integral) corresponding to theportion of the advertisement displayed. By way of example, withcontinued reference to FIG. 9, if a user scrolls to a location such thata region of the advertisement between the top of the advertisement and aposition P is visible, then the weighting applied to the scroll dwelltime for this region is defined by the area A under the curve betweenthe top of the advertisement and the position P.

It will be appreciated that an advertisement may be displayed for such asmall amount of time as to not be truly comprehended by the user.Therefore, in one embodiment, if the scroll dwell time of anadvertisement is less than a predefined threshold, then the scroll dwelltime is not recorded for purposes of determining the cost to theadvertiser.

It should be appreciated that the various principles and methodsdescribed with reference to scroll dwell time may be applied to anyother dwell time of an advertisement, as has been described herein.Furthermore, the aforementioned techniques for determining, modifying,or adjusting dwell time or scroll dwell time may be applied in anycombination with each other.

FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a general computer systemdesignated 900. The computer system 900 can include a set ofinstructions that can be executed to cause the computer system 900 toperform any one or more of the methods or computer based functionsdisclosed herein. The computer system 900 may operate as a standalonedevice or may be connected, e.g., using a network, to other computersystems or peripheral devices.

In a networked deployment, the computer system 900 may operate in thecapacity of a server or as a client user computer in a server-clientuser network environment, or as a peer computer system in a peer-to-peer(or distributed) network environment. The computer system 900 can alsobe implemented as or incorporated into various devices, such as apersonal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a mobile device, a palmtop computer, a laptopcomputer, a desktop computer, a communications device, a wirelesstelephone, a land-line telephone, a control system, a camera, a scanner,a facsimile machine, a printer, a pager, a personal trusted device, aweb appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any other machinecapable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise)that specify actions to be taken by that machine. In a particularembodiment, the computer system 900 can be implemented using electronicdevices that provide voice, video or data communication. Further, whilea single computer system 900 is illustrated, the term “system” shallalso be taken to include any collection of systems or sub-systems thatindividually or jointly execute a set, or multiple sets, of instructionsto perform one or more computer functions.

As illustrated in FIG. 10, the computer system 900 may include aprocessor 902, e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphicsprocessing unit (GPU), or both. The processor 902 may be a component ina variety of systems. For example, the processor 902 may be part of astandard personal computer or a workstation. The processor 902 may beone or more general processors, digital signal processors, applicationspecific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, servers,networks, digital circuits, analog circuits, combinations thereof, orother now known or later developed devices for analyzing and processingdata. The processor 902 may implement a software program, such as codegenerated manually (i.e., programmed).

The computer system 900 may include a memory 904 that can communicatevia a bus 908. The memory 904 may be a main memory, a static memory, ora dynamic memory. The memory 904 may include, but is not limited tocomputer readable storage media such as various types of volatile andnon-volatile storage media, including but not limited to random accessmemory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, electricallyprogrammable read-only memory, electrically erasable read-only memory,flash memory, magnetic tape or disk, optical media and the like. In oneembodiment, the memory 904 includes a cache or random access memory forthe processor 902. In alternative embodiments, the memory 904 isseparate from the processor 902, such as a cache memory of a processor,the system memory, or other memory. The memory 904 may be an externalstorage device or database for storing data. Examples include a harddrive, compact disc (“CD”), digital video disc (“DVD”), memory card,memory stick, floppy disc, universal serial bus (“USB”) memory device,or any other device operative to store data. The memory 904 is operableto store instructions executable by the processor 902. The functions,acts or tasks illustrated in the figures or described herein may beperformed by the programmed processor 902 executing the instructionsstored in the memory 904. The functions, acts or tasks are independentof the particular type of instructions set, storage media, processor orprocessing strategy and may be performed by software, hardware,integrated circuits, firm-ware, micro-code and the like, operating aloneor in combination. Likewise, processing strategies may includemultiprocessing, multitasking, parallel processing and the like.

As shown, the computer system 900 may further include a display unit910, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light emittingdiode (OLED), a flat panel display, a solid state display, a cathode raytube (CRT), a projector, a printer or other now known or later developeddisplay device for outputting determined information. The display 910may act as an interface for the user to see the functioning of theprocessor 902, or specifically as an interface with the software storedin the memory 904 or in the drive unit 916.

Additionally or alternatively, the computer system 900 may include aninput device 912 configured to allow a user to interact with any of thecomponents of system 900. The input device 912 may be a number pad, akeyboard, or a cursor control device, such as a mouse, or a joystick,touch screen display, remote control or any other device operative tointeract with the computer system 900.

The computer system 900 may also or alternatively include a disk oroptical drive unit 916. The disk drive unit 916 may include acomputer-readable medium 922 in which one or more sets of instructions924, e.g. software, can be embedded. Further, the instructions 924 mayembody one or more of the methods or logic as described herein. Theinstructions 924 may reside completely or partially within the memory904 and/or within the processor 902 during execution by the computersystem 900. The memory 904 and the processor 902 also may includecomputer-readable media as discussed above.

In some systems, a computer-readable medium 922 includes instructions924 or receives and executes instructions 924 responsive to a propagatedsignal so that a device connected to a network 926 can communicatevoice, video, audio, images or any other data over the network 926.Further, the instructions 924 may be transmitted or received over thenetwork 926 via a communication port or interface 920, and/or using abus 908. The communication port or interface 920 may be a part of theprocessor 902 or may be a separate component. The communication port 920may be created in software or may be a physical connection in hardware.The communication port 920 may be configured to connect with a network926, external media, the display 910, or any other components in system900, or combinations thereof. The connection with the network 926 may bea physical connection, such as a wired Ethernet connection or may beestablished wirelessly as discussed below. Likewise, the additionalconnections with other components of the system 900 may be physicalconnections or may be established wirelessly. The network 926 mayalternatively be directly connected to the bus 908.

While the computer-readable medium 922 is shown to be a single medium,the term “computer-readable medium” may include a single medium ormultiple media, such as a centralized or distributed database, and/orassociated caches and servers that store one or more sets ofinstructions. The term “computer-readable medium” may also include anymedium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying a set ofinstructions for execution by a processor or that cause a computersystem to perform any one or more of the methods or operations disclosedherein. The computer-readable medium 922 may be non-transitory, and maybe tangible.

The computer-readable medium 922 can include a solid-state memory suchas a memory card or other package that houses one or more non-volatileread-only memories. The computer-readable medium 922 can be a randomaccess memory or other volatile re-writable memory. Additionally oralternatively, the computer-readable medium 922 can include amagneto-optical or optical medium, such as a disk or tapes or otherstorage device to capture carrier wave signals such as a signalcommunicated over a transmission medium. A digital file attachment to anemail or other self-contained information archive or set of archives maybe considered a distribution medium that is a tangible storage medium.Accordingly, the disclosure is considered to include any one or more ofa computer-readable medium or a distribution medium and otherequivalents and successor media, in which data or instructions may bestored.

In an alternative embodiment, dedicated hardware implementations, suchas application specific integrated circuits, programmable logic arraysand other hardware devices, can be constructed to implement one or moreof the methods described herein. Applications that may include theapparatus and systems of various embodiments can broadly include avariety of electronic and computer systems. One or more embodimentsdescribed herein may implement functions using two or more specificinterconnected hardware modules or devices with related control and datasignals that can be communicated between and through the modules, or asportions of an application-specific integrated circuit. Accordingly, thepresent system encompasses software, firmware, and hardwareimplementations.

The computer system 900 may be connected to one or more networks 926.The network 926 may define one or more networks including wired orwireless networks. The wireless network may be a cellular telephonenetwork, an 802.11, 802.16, 802.20, or WiMax network. Further, suchnetworks may include a public network, such as the Internet, a privatenetwork, such as an intranet, or combinations thereof, and may utilize avariety of networking protocols now available or later developedincluding, but not limited to TCP/IP based networking protocols. Thenetwork 926 may include wide area networks (WAN), such as the Internet,local area networks (LAN), campus area networks, metropolitan areanetworks, a direct connection such as through a Universal Serial Bus(USB) port, or any other networks that may allow for data communication.The network 926 may be configured to couple one computing device toanother computing device to enable communication of data between thedevices. The network 926 may generally be enabled to employ any form ofmachine-readable media for communicating information from one device toanother. The network 926 may include communication methods by whichinformation may travel between computing devices. The network 926 may bedivided into sub-networks. The sub-networks may allow access to all ofthe other components connected thereto or the sub-networks may restrictaccess between the components. The network 926 may be regarded as apublic or private network connection and may include, for example, avirtual private network or an encryption or other security mechanismemployed over the public Internet, or the like.

In accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure, themethods described herein may be implemented by software programsexecutable by a computer system. Further, in an exemplary, non-limitedembodiment, implementations can include distributed processing,component/object distributed processing, and parallel processing.Alternatively, virtual computer system processing can be constructed toimplement one or more of the methods or functionality as describedherein.

Although the present specification describes components and functionsthat may be implemented in particular embodiments with reference toparticular standards and protocols, the invention is not limited to suchstandards and protocols. For example, standards for Internet and otherpacket switched network transmission (e.g., TCP/IP, UDP/IP, HTML, HTTP)represent examples of the state of the art. Such standards areperiodically superseded by faster or more efficient equivalents havingessentially the same functions. Accordingly, replacement standards andprotocols having the same or similar functions as those disclosed hereinare considered equivalents thereof.

The above disclosed subject matter is to be considered illustrative, andnot restrictive, and the appended claims are intended to cover all suchmodifications, enhancements, and other embodiments, which fall withinthe true spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, to the maximumextent allowed by law, the scope of the present invention is to bedetermined by the broadest permissible interpretation of the followingclaims and their equivalents, and shall not be restricted or limited bythe foregoing detailed description. While various embodiments of theinvention have been described, it will be apparent to those of ordinaryskill in the art that many more embodiments and implementations arepossible within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the inventionis not to be restricted except in light of the attached claims and theirequivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for online advertising, comprising: receiving, over a network, a request for a content stream from a client device; embedding an advertisement in the content stream, and transmitting the content stream over the network to the client device, the content stream including a web beacon that records scroll event data in response to scroll activity at the client device when the content stream is presented through a scrollable context that defines a visible presentation area on a display of the client device; receiving, over the network from the client device, the scroll event data recorded by the web beacon; determining a weighted scroll dwell time of the advertisement using the scroll event data, wherein determining the weighted scroll dwell time includes, measuring, using event timestamps in the scroll event data, elapsed amounts of time of one or more time periods when the advertisement was visible in the scrollable context, applying a weight to each measured elapsed amount of time based on a determined fractional portion of the advertisement that was visible during the measured elapsed amount of time or a determined scroll speed during the measured elapsed amount of time, and totaling the weighted elapsed amounts of time to define the weighted scroll dwell time; determining a level of performance of a guaranteed presentation amount associated with the advertisement using the weighted scroll dwell time of the advertisement; wherein the method is executed by at least one processor.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the scrollable context is defined such that portions of the content stream enter or exit the visible presentation area based on scrolling of the content stream.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the weighted scroll dwell time includes, identifying, from the scroll event data, one or more scroll locations to which the content stream is scrolled, determining whether the advertisement was visible in the visible presentation area when the content stream was scrolled to the identified scroll locations.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the guaranteed presentation amount defines a number of impressions for the advertisement.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the level of performance includes assigning a weight to the presentation of the advertisement based on the weighted scroll dwell time, and aggregating the weighted presentation of the advertisement with prior weighted presentations of the advertisement, each prior weighted presentation being defined by a prior presentation of the advertisement weighted by a prior weighted scroll dwell time.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the guaranteed presentation amount defines a total duration of exposure for the advertisement.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein determining the level of performance includes aggregating the weighted scroll dwell time for the presentation on the client device with weighted scroll dwell times for prior presentations of exposure of the advertisement.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the advertisement includes determining a match between a target profile associated with the advertisement and an opportunity profile associated with the content stream, the opportunity profile being based on one or more of characteristics of content to be presented in the content stream or characteristics of a user of the client device.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device is a mobile device.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the display is a touchscreen display configured to receive gesture input, and wherein the scroll event data is generated based on the received gesture input.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the request for the content stream is received from an app that is executed by the client device, the app defining the scrollable context through which the content stream is presented.
 12. A method for online advertising, comprising: receiving, over a network, a request for a content stream from a client device; identifying a plurality of advertisements as candidates for presentation in the content stream; for each of the plurality of advertisements, determining an expected cost per time unit (eCPTU) of exposure; selecting one of the plurality of advertisements for inclusion in the content stream based on the eCPTU's of the plurality of advertisements; transmitting, over the network, the content stream to the client device, the content stream including a web beacon that records scroll event data in response to scroll activity at the client device when the content stream is presented through a scrollable context that defines a visible presentation area on a display of the client device; receiving, over the network from the client device, the scroll event data recorded by the web beacon; determining a weighted scroll dwell time of the selected advertisement using the scroll event data, wherein determining the weighted scroll dwell time includes, measuring, using event timestamps in the scroll event data, elapsed amounts of time of one or more time periods when the selected advertisement was visible in the scrollable context, applying a weight to each measured elapsed amount of time based on a determined fractional portion of the selected advertisement that was visible during the measured elapsed amount of time or a determined scroll speed during the measured elapsed amount of time, and totaling the weighted elapsed amounts of time to define the weighted scroll dwell time; wherein the method is executed by at least one processor.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein selecting one of the plurality of advertisements includes performing an auction for an advertising opportunity defined by the content stream based on the eCPTU's of the plurality of advertisements.
 14. The method of claim 12, wherein identifying the plurality of advertisements includes determining a match between a target profile associated with each of the plurality of advertisements and an opportunity profile associated with the content stream, the opportunity profile being based on one or more of characteristics of content to be presented in the content stream or characteristics of a user of the client device.
 15. The method of claim 12, wherein determining the eCPTU for each of the plurality of advertisements includes converting one or more of a cost per impression (CPM) bid, a cost per click (CPC) bid, or a cost per conversion (CPA) bid to the eCPTU.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein converting the CPM bid to the eCPTU includes dividing the CPM bid by an average exposure duration per impression for the advertisement.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein converting the CPC bid includes multiplying the CPC bid by a probability that presentation of the advertisement will result in a click activity.
 18. The method of claim 15, wherein converting the CPA bid includes multiplying the CPA bid by a probability that presentation of the advertisement will result in a conversion activity.
 19. A method for online advertising, comprising: receiving, over a network, a request for a content stream from a mobile device; embedding an advertisement in the content stream, and transmitting the content stream over the network to the mobile device, the content stream including a web beacon that records scroll event data in response to scroll activity at the mobile device when the content stream is presented through a scrollable context that defines a visible presentation area on a display of the mobile device, wherein the display is a touchscreen display configured to receive gesture input, and wherein the scroll event data is generated based on the received gesture input; receiving, over the network from the mobile device, the scroll event data recorded by the web beacon; determining a weighted scroll dwell time of the advertisement using the scroll event data, wherein determining the weighted scroll dwell time includes, measuring, using event timestamps in the scroll event data, elapsed amounts of time of one or more time periods when the advertisement was visible in the scrollable context, applying a weight to each measured elapsed amount of time based on a determined fractional portion of the advertisement that was visible during the measured elapsed amount of time or a determined scroll speed during the measured elapsed amount of time, and totaling the weighted elapsed amounts of time to define the weighted scroll dwell time; determining a level of performance of a guaranteed presentation amount associated with the advertisement using the weighted scroll dwell time of the advertisement; wherein the method is executed by at least one processor.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein the scrollable context is defined such that portions of the content stream enter or exit the visible presentation area based on scrolling of the content stream. 